Two days later, Marsh was arrested and released on bail without charges. He has now resigned.

Since then Patisserie Holdings has uncovered two secret bank overdrafts at HSBC and Barclays which added £9.7m to the debt burden. After chairman Luke Johnson put in £20m of his own money to save the business from going under, he was forced to go cap in hand to Patisserie Holdings’ shareholders to raise an extra £15m.

As well as the FRC, the Serious Fraud Office has opened an investigation.